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I was already dubious about the relaunch of Human Events, and the abrupt elimination of Global Editor In Chief Raheem Kassam by publisher/ backer (and now Editor In Chief) Will Chamberlain (Human Events Says Sayonara To Raheem Kassam, Daily Caller, August 8, 2019)makes think it’s going to be just another Alt-Lite gatekeeper—in which case it is doomed to fail.

Last year, I wrote an article for VDARE about the magazines and newsletters I read as a young stripling conservative in the pre-Internet days (mid-1990s). One of the publications certainly not on this list was the D.C.-based tabloid Human Events. I was familiar with the outlet and occasionally flipped through it at my local library. It was depressingly boring and full of boilerplate about tax cuts, balanced budgets, military spending and internal GOP politics. Why did it have such a solid reputation on the Right? Who would pay to read such things?

I would later discover that, while it was never all that great, it was at one point a fairly conservative magazine on racial and cultural issues.

As the former managing editor of Human Events, I can recall several instances in editorial meetings and private discussions in which race was simmering just below the surface—whether crime rates in the nation’s capital, immigration, or educational disparities in student achievement. When the conversation became increasingly awkward, one of the other top editors would caution: “I suppose we shouldn’t discuss that.” Then they would quickly move on to a safer subject.

How could a supposedly “staunch conservative outlet” fold so quickly to a far-left pressure group? Lamb writes that the then-editors and owners of Human Events were typical cases of Reagan revolutionaries degenerating into Conservatism Inc.—going native inside the Beltway and growing terrified of being called racists. But this was not always the case:

It is true that over the years Human Events was careful in confronting the race issue. It never was explicitly a racial publication and it would be inappropriate to characterize it as such. But by the same token, it was never a champion of radical egalitarian social policies. It routinely opposed forced busing, Head Start, affirmative action, and aggressively exposed the Communist influence within the civil rights movement. The paper’s editors tacitly understood that grassroots cultural conservatives, such as Birchers and members of the Southern Citizen’s Council, formed a considerable core of Human Events’ readership base. The paper unapologetically looked up to prominent conservative public officials—including former segregationists such as Strom Thurmond—without being explicitly racial in outlook.

But by the 1990s things had completely changed. In one pathetic instance described by Lamb, Winter fretted about being called a “racist” if they ran a positive mention of The Bell Curve. In short, conservatism had long since ceded racial issues to the left. Lamb concluded:

For many Beltway “conservatives,” attending events like the [G. W. Bush]White House Christmas Party is the pinnacle of achievement. Everything else is secondary. Anything that jeopardizes this social standing is beyond the pale. Status is the fuel that drives the Conservative Establishment.

Apparently, the Human Events former readership agreed. The publication shuttered in 2013 (though it kept a seldom updated web presence). [How the Chips Fell At Human Events, by Eddie Scarry, Adweek, February 27, 2013] It seemed destined to become a footnote in the history of American conservatism as an example of what happens to “conservative” outlets that can’t or won’t stand up to the left.

But in May 2019, there was an unlikely revival of Human Events under new ownership. And Editor Raheem Kassam seemed to give the new Human Events a promising start.

Unfortunately, Kassam’s tenure at Human Eventsended on August 8. An insider tells me that he was fired by Chamberlain for wanting to take a more adversarial stance against the Left on cultural issues. The issue that apparently was the last straw: criticism of transsexuals.

The new Human Events is part of a recent trend of conservative operatives copying what Donald Trump did successfully in 2015-16: gravitating toward nationalism and a harder line against Leftism on issues such as immigration, multiculturalism and Political Correctness. But if Kassam was fired in less than three months for criticizing transsexuals, this is a major red flag. Is Will Chamberlain any different from the cowardly editors who fired Kevin Lamb 14 years ago?

Similarly, the Edmund Burke Foundation, which calls itself “a public affairs institute dedicated to developing a revitalized conservatism for the age of nationalism already upon us,” recently held a “National Conservatism Conference” in Washington, DC. But organizer Yoram Hazony disinvited VDARE.com Editor Peter Brimelow and denied American RenaissanceEditor Jared Taylor a press pass. (Both websites snuck in moles, see here and here)

Interestingly, Human Events did not cover Hazony’s conference, though Kassam was in attendance and tweeted about it:

Will the new Human Events turn out to be another Hazony-type scam? Or will it continue to publish open defenders of Enoch Powell and attack the Left on nationalist issues that increasingly define American politics? Would it publish an article from Jared Taylor (Peter Brimelow says he’s too busy)?

The original Human Events died because it would not defend the Historic American Nation for fear of being called “racist.” National Review seems on its last legs for similar reasons. For conservatism to have a future, it needs to move in a more nationalist direction. But this will only invite more attacks from the Left. Will the new Human Events withstand these attacks—or will it fold like the old Human Events?

Your description of it in the 90s was great, an also ran to TAS and NR. Nearly all the content seemed to be syndicated conservative columnist reprints. But my liberal local paper printed plenty of them, including every single Pat Buchanan and Cal Thomas column.

I was a Human Events reader doe quite some time. Even before TAC and what began to happen over time is that conservative viewpoints were consistently blocked by disqus editors. One appreciates the access to edit one’s comments. But their content editors were in my view deeply tainted left. I always hoped that TAC would move in that direction allowing self editing. I was surprised when they attached disqus.

The stupidity of the White goyim Cuckish normietatd is astonishing. ARSEs abusing the NTs worse than a JF cuffin’ SCP’s cash. Almost as bad as K-Lo is beaten if he suggests that maybe a Normal White Man should have his views accounted for at Cabal.

Tacky chav deoderant brand stynx presumably has as it’s main customers White Men. Yet a van of badass dindu heroes are shown as badass dindu heroes lording it over some fat ugly northern soul type retard. He dances terribly, is cringingly excited about scoring a goal (implying immaturity & inexperience & is starstruck by the TWers in the van).

“But if Kassam was fired in less than three months for criticizing transsexuals, this is a major red flag. Is Will Chamberlain any different from the cowardly editors who fired Kevin Lamb 14 years ago?”

Hello. Will Chamberlain is a (rhymes with bike).

Unless you’re willing to do the ethnicity research on those who torture you, then you will continue to be mystified by “random white race traitors.”

He’s a weird one though. How can he say Enoch was right when Enoch was specifically referring to people like him (UGANDAN ASIANS) in his famous speeches? Kassam and his family were the targets . Enoch Powell did not want to take in all the expelled Asians from Uganda ( see Idi Amin). Enoch was right….if he was Raheem boyo shouldn’t even be there LOL

Raheem Kassam appears somewhat on our side but while he’s not anti-white I think he’s probably indifferent to white racial survival. That is why whites can’t delude themselves into thinking we can appoint non-white leaders and mascots to save us or for optics purposes. Only we (whites) understand what’s at stake so we must lead ourselves and be unapologetically pro-white in the process.

When I began reading NR in the early 90’s it did not shy away from racial issues. Monthly issues routinely discussed anti-white bias in Hollywood movies, affirmative action excesses against whites, violent black crime, and problems wrought by mass illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America (although they were mostly supportive mass legal immigration). I’d say it was just slightly to the left in tone and tenor to what one finds on American Renaissance. The one strike against them is that they were, even at that time, stridently philo-semitic and pro-Israel.

But NR’s and Conservatism, Inc.’s endless cucking and virtue signaling to (((the left))) on race as well as their embrace of elements of leftism, which seemed to start in the late 90’s, left a growing void that was bound to be filled sooner or later. And it has by white nationalists and related worldviews, paleocons and alt-lighters.

When our race is being systematically destroyed via government policy it’s little consolation to read about the heydays of the Reagan years, the conservative case for homosexuality and open borders, Israel Uber Alles and how any fledgling white organizations and websites who oppose white genocide must be burnt to the ground because they offend Davey French’s sensibilities.

I read HR for several months a couple of decades ago but gave up when I realized that I had no idea as to its purpose other than to print carefully selected ; nowadays one would say curated, articles that claimed to define The One True Faith- Rockefeller Republicanism.

If I got anything out of it, it was as a useful place to watch the barking mad loons of the left, little Billy Kristol ‘s mob, come screaming into the Conservative house, run around, trash the place and run screaming out again.

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